French Airbus missing over Atlantic

Hope is fading for more than 200 passengers and crew aboard an Air France jet that went missing over the Atlantic.

Contact was lost with the Airbus A330 plane at around 3.20am UK time after it took off on Sunday night from Rio de Janeiro on a flight to Paris.

The plane - AF447 - should have landed at Charles de Gaulle airport in the French capital at around 10.15am UK time on Monday.

But there was still no word of the aircraft's whereabouts by midday as Brazilian air force planes mounted a search of the Atlantic.

It was reported that the aircraft sent a message just after 2am UK time that it had experienced a short-circuit problem after running into turbulence.

French minister Jean-Louis Borloo said the plane had probably had an accident and ruled out hijacking. He went on: "By now it would be beyond its kerosene reserves so unfortunately we must now envisage the most tragic scenario."

With French president Nicolas Sarkozy expressing his concern at the incident, Air France spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand said the airline had set up an information centre at Charles de Gaulle airport for the families of those aboard.

The aircraft, with 216 passengers and 12 crew aboard, was equipped with CF6 engines made by American company General Electric.

To search for the missing aircraft, Brazilian air force planes took off from Fernando de Noronha - an archipelago about 220 miles off the coast of Brazil. It consists of 21 islands, with the main one giving its name to the whole group and making up more than 90% of the total area.

UK aviation experts were reluctant to speculate about what happened to the aircraft. But one said: "It's almost unthinkable for a western European airliner just to go missing like this."